Keep Beat: This smart bra sets your workout pace with music

More and more wearable tech brands are integrating heart rate sensing tech into their products. But the problem is, just serving up details about your heart rate may not actually mean much or urge you to change your pace when you’re pounding the treadmill. The Mio Fuse (which we reviewed this morning) vibrates on your wrist to alert you when you’re entering different exertion zones, which is a good start, but we can’t help but feel you need more of a reason to do what a wearable wants you to do when you’re tried and pushing yourself to the limit.

Well, meet the Keep Beat bra. This ‘smart bra’ is designed to set your workout pace by slowing down or pumping up your music based on your heart rate. So let’s say you’re playing an upbeat track from Beyonce and it turns into a slow tempo-d ballad with drawn out vocals – that means you’re going too slow. In contrast, if you’ve got a piece of twinkly classical music on and it sounds more like a dance track, you’re going too fast.

This seems like such an “Ahh Eureka!” moment for me and I’m sure many people who workout regularly will agree. Continually checking gadgets for data just doesn’t work in the real world when you’re drained and sweating, but audio cues are likely to be so much more effective. I also feel like they’d ease you into changing your pace more rather than turning your workout into an army drill, but I guess it’s hard to know without testing it myself.

But the Keep Beat isn’t just smart because it’ll track your heart rate and change up your music, it wants to make working out comfier too by adding a phone pocket at the back of the bra. Victoria Sowerby, the brains behind Keep Beat, said:

“I wanted to make the whole experience where all your stats are within the app, but it also gives you somewhere to put your phone. When I ran with mine in my pocket, it would bounce up and down, and I don’t like armbands because they can rub a bit or throw your balance off.”

And it gets better, Sowerby also designed the bra to be comfortable AND stylish (two words that aren’t often included in the same sentence) with different prints, reflective stripes, sweat wicking fabric and a comfortable feel.

According to Refinery29, the bra’s creator, Victoria Sowerby, is one of three students studying Northumbria University’s new course on Performance Product Design (how awesome does that sound?). We’re fascinated to see whether Keep Beat takes off past the prototype stage – not to mention what else Sowerby and her peers dream up next!